In Tribute
by Kali1
Summary: An idea I had for a Michael Zaslow memorial episode.


_Alan: After everything that has transpired over the years between Roger and me, Phillip, you don't honestly expect me to pretend to give a d@mn that he's dead, do you?_

_Phillip: No, Dad, of course not. No more than I do. I would just like you to be..... respectful of Amanda's and Aunt Alex's feelings about him. That's all. Despite how we felt about him, they both loved him at one time or another._

_India: I thought the Dragon Lady despised Roger, didn't want *anything* to do with him. Why should she care about what Alan says regarding the not so dearly departed?_

_Phillip: I just don't want this devolving into another "Deborgia" family dinner. Dad, your still not fully recovered from your heart attack, the last thing you need is get overwhelmed in an argument with Alex and Amanda._

_Alan: Phillip, given the fact that neither of your aunts could be bothered to visit me when I was in the hospital, how.....why should I even care what they think of my feelings towards Roger's death? Especially to the point of exhaustion?_

_Phillip: Dad, that's not......{The doorbell rings.} Just behave, please. You two haven't seen each other in several months._

_Alan: That was her doing, not mine._

_India: {To Alan:} Personally, darling, I think that you're better off without her. Her, and her holier than thou ways...._

_Phillip: India, now isn't the time for this....._

_India: Oh, you mean I can't tell her about my newfound love affair with your father? Drat, I was soooo looking forward to seeing the look on her face when she found out. A true "kodak moment" to treasure for *years* to come._

_{Alan laughs, while Phillip has a "Why me?" look on his face.}_

_{Next Scene}_

_Billy: Thorpe is dead, and soon to buried in the cold, hard ground where he belongs. God, is this news to celebrate, or what?_

_Reva: Billy, how can you say that!? Think about RJ, Peter, and the twins. His *grandchildren*. How are they supposed to feel?!_

_Billy: Lucky that they never had the misfortune of really knowing him? _

_Cassie: Billy! He was Hart's and Blake's father. How can you be so cold!?_

_Billy: Look, I'm sorry that they lost their grandfather, and that Blake Marler lost her father, especially in light of Hart's recent death, but, the fact is.... that man has put our family through hell. I see no reason not feel... relief that Thorpe has shuffled off this mortal coil so to speak. I'm in the mood to party. Now who should we invite..... Fletcher, he'll come to back to town for this. He wouldn't miss this for the world! And Buzz.....Ross and Ed, though they both might have a conflict of interest considering their respective relationships with Blake and Holly....And Oh Hell, I'm in such a good mood that I would even invite Alan!_

_Reva: Aren't you being a little extreme?_

_Billy: Ok, I won't invite Alan._

_Reva: I wasn't talking about that._

_Billy: Reva, were talking about a man who took advantage of you when you were ill with post partem years ago. He took advantage of you, and acquired.... intimate pictures of you which he proceeded to use to try and blackmail us over our battle for the deed to the land under Towers._

_{Show Flashback}_

_Josh: But we won in the end. Reva's right, Billy. There's something..... *wrong* with this....with taking pleasure over someone else's death._

_Billy: This isn't just anyone, Josh. This is....*was* Roger Thorpe. He threatened *our* family, Josh, that's why I did what I did, and I why I served my time. He took advantage of my sweet little Melinda Sue. _

_{Show flashback.}_

_Reva: Mindy is doing just fine now Billy. I doubt, that she thinks much about that time period in her life._

_Vanessa: Lord knows, how sorry I feel for Peter, and.... his other grandchildren. But... I will *never* forget how he very nearly killed, Daddy. Roger wanted to be involved with Spaulding Enterprises, so badly.....to have his hooks in the company so deeply, that he conned my father into a high stakes card game. He got Daddy's stock in the company, promising to sell it back to him when he had the money. He lied, and when Daddy found out......._

_{Show flashback}_

_Billy: We got to him in time Vanessa, that's what matters. We stopped Henry from committing suicide. _

_Cassie: You never saw his softer side, his relationship with Blake and Hart brought that out. He truly, and deeply, loved his family. {Show various flashbacks of Roger's paternal moments.}_

_Cassie: He loved little RJ so much, spoiled him like a proper grandfather should...._

_ Hart's death hit him very hard. He wanted so to return and spend time more time with his family, but........due to his illness..._

_Billy: Look, like, I said before, I'm sorry for his family, I know what it feels like to lose a father, Josh and I lost H.B., but don't ask me to act like I think that his death is any great loss to the world, because that wouldn't be the *real* me._

_Reva: And we wouldn't want you any other way._

_Billy: You. {smiles}_

_{Next Scene}_

_Amanda: You didn't really know him, Alan. None of you here knew him the way I did. He helped me out so much. Made me feel.... for once in my life, that I belonged. Then there is the *much* disregarded fact that he did so much for this family, for Spaulding Enterprises. That *none* of you here have ever either acknowledged or even begrudgingly accepted._

_Alex: Hah! That's debatable!_

_Amanda: Touché. You're just jealous, Alexandra, since he tired of you sooooo soon after your marriage. Mindy Lewis, wasn't it?_

_{Show flashback}_

_Alex: How do you know that he didn't do the exact same thing to you, you know, when you have had those rose colored glasses of yours on? Talk about being blinded to the truth. You wouldn't know the truth about him if it bit you on the...._

_Alan: Just like you, when you married Roger, Alexandra? I warned this entire family about him. But did any one of you heed a word that I said? No. You all welcomed him into the family, just to spite me!_

_Alex: I didn't do it to hurt you, Alan. I thought....I believed at the time that I loved him, and that he reciprocated that emotion. Little did I know what he had in store...._

_{Show flashback.}_

_Alan: Indeed. Name one thing that I,...no,...*we* should be grateful to Roger Thorpe for!_

_Alan-Michael: Well, not that I liked the man. But he did help you after Tangie accidentally shot you. Right after you were released from prison._

_{Show Flashback}_

_Alan: He only did that to serve his own purposes. He wanted to see me dead, and as you all know, the feeling was mutual. _

_Amanda: He rescued Alan-Michael after he was kidnapped._

_{Show flashback.}_

_Alex: Whom was married to his "darling" daughter Blake. Of course he would help, solely for her sake, and to snake his way even further into my good graces. And while we are reminiscing over old times, lets not forget, that Roger knew full well that Phillip was innocent of any wrong doing in Neil Everest's death, he let Phillip get indicted, and pursued, for a crime that he didn't even commit!_

_{Show flashback.}_

_Amanda: Hmmm...Well, lets not forget whom was ultimately responsible for that. {Looks at Alan. *Author's note: I hated the A. Spaulding storyline, and would prefer to forget it ever happened. For it violated continuity by making Alex and Alan-Michael suspects, when they both had no motive whatsoever during that time period, and were devastated when they thought Phillip was dead.*}_

_India: Alan never meant for Phillip to be hurt! Well, physically, that is. _

_Alex: For once India, we actually agree on something. Let's all leave that piece of ancient history where it belongs, in the past. _

_Alan: Phillip....._

_Phillip: It's OK, Dad. As I told you before, none of that matters from here on in. We fought so many times....So much anger,..... and hate. I....I just want to put those times behind us. I'm just happy that you are still with us._

_Alex: As am I. I can't tell you how worried I was when I found out. If Susan hadn't been so ill.... Well, I hope you realize that......that under normal circumstances, nothing would have kept me from your side._

_Alan-Michael: How is Nick doing, Aunt Alex? I've been meaning to write him after finding out about Susan's passing, but....... words just seem so hollow. Lord knows, we weren't always friends. But there was a time, when he was the only family, besides Ed and Michelle, that I had in Springfield._

_Alex: It's been hard for him......I don't think he was prepared...... that he was ready to say... good-bye. He loved her so much, it just broke my heart watching him go through so much pain. My poor baby....._

_Amanda: {changing the subject} Phillip, Alan's put you through hell over the years, yet you've forgiven him. You've gotten past that. And yet, you feel nothing but hatred for Roger._

_Phillip: Amanda, what on earth are you babbling about!? Roger didn't raise me, Amanda. He was my former father-in-law and.... uncle by marriage, nothing more. There is a difference, you know._

_Alex: No kidding. Now Amanda, you talk so highly of all the brilliant, *wonderful* work Roger did for Spaulding Enterprises. However, given that he once "stole" it from us to give to his then girlfriend Jenna Bradshaw, I really fail to see how we should miss his contribution as an *employee*._

_{Show flashback}_

_{Next Scene}_

_Ben: I just wanted to extend my deepest sympathies, Blake. I am so sorry for your loss._

_Blake: Thank you, Ben. You're probably one of the few people in town whom say it, and actually mean it. I still can't believe it. He seemed so indestructible. Like nothing could kill him. We're talking about a man whom fell off a cliff, and survived! How.... how could he..... how could *she* keep his illness from me? I should have been told!_

_Ben: Perhaps, perhaps he just wanted you to remember him..... in his prime._

_Blake: I didn't even know him for very long. Such a small part of my life was spent knowing him, really. But, he stuck by me through thick and thin. Through my marriage to Phillip...._

_{Show flashbacks}_

_Blake: and Alan-Michael. He knew about... my faking being pregnant to ensnare Alan-Michael, my involvement with Gary Swanson, everything. _

_{Show more flashbacks}_

_Blake: And through it all....... he stuck by me....... I was always... his little.... Chrissie. {starts sobbing}_

_{Ben embraces Blake to try and comfort her.}_

_{next scene}_

_Holly: Useless, it's all useless!_

_Ross: Holly, are you all right? I know that finding out about Roger's death has been a rather large shock._

_Holly: That's one way of putting it. I guess...... But, Ross.... It's Blake that I'm worried about, she won't talk to me about this. She was always "Daddy's little girl". He was always her biggest supporter, her champion. She needs to feel..... to realize that she's has us as well._

_Ross: There is no "us" in regards to me and Blake, Holly. You know that. She has made her feelings *painfully* clear. Other than our boys, she wants nothing else to do with me._

_Holly: She doesn't truly feel that way, Ross. That's simply what she *wants* you to believe, and what she, herself, wants to believe She's just bottling her feelings up inside her, like she's done so very often in the past. I worry that she's doing it ...........Well, I'm afraid that losing Roger, upon losing Hart so recently..... will be to much for her._

_Ross: Hart's death was a terrible tragedy. I can't tell you how......... how...sorry I was. That Dinah, my Dinah, was responsible. I still can't believe it, myself. Just doesn't seem real. I still can't believe how my little girl changed._

_Holly: I can relate. There was a time, years ago, when Blake seemed to be following in her father's shadow._

_{Show flashbacks.}_

_Holly: Fortunately, unlike Dinah, she changed for the better._

_{Next Scene}_

_Holly: That man was always so infuriating!_

_Sam: Who?_

_Holly: Roger! After everything he's done to me, the rape, kidnapping Blake when she was little....... _

_{Show flashbacks}_

_Holly: Well, I don't think I'll ever be able to get him.... out...._

_Sam: Out of what?_

_Holly: My mind, my soul.......... my heart. Dear Lord, despite everything......... I actually cared for that man! Can you believe it?! Why, I don't know. I really don't. Sometimes, I would lay awake at night wondering....just wondering........*why*?!...But then, nothing ever made much sense when it came to Roger._

_Sam: Well, you told me that he was Blake's father. I think it's only natural to feel something regarding his death..._

_Holly: Natural? My relationship with him was never "natural". It bordered on obsession. I lost Fletcher.... and my little Meg over it... And so many years ago, I lost Ross over it...._

_{Show Flashback}_

_Sam: Ross Marler? Your daughter's ex-husband?_

_Holly: The one and the same._

_Sam: My, you folks *definitively* get around._

_Holly: And we've only just scratched the tip of the iceberg in regards to Roger. Ross was the one who defended Roger in the rape trial. _

_{Show Flashbacks}_

_Holly: Fortunately, he's changed since then._

_{next scene}_

_{Billy is sitting at the country club bar. He is drinking a club soda, when Alan arrives and orders a Scotch on the rocks. Seeing Alan, Billy approaches him.}_

_Billy: So, Spaulding, have you talked to Amanda? Is the funeral going to be open casket, or closed casket?_

_Alan: Why should I care?_

_Billy: Roger's been "dead" before........_

_{Show flashback}_

_Billy: How are we supposed to know whether or not this time is actually permanent?_

_Alan: What do you suggest we do? Sneak over to the funeral home, in the middle of the night, and stick him with a pin?_

_Billy: Wouldn't be a bad idea._

_Alan: It would be a morbid one._

_Billy: Yes, I guess it would._

_Alan: And a pointless one, for that thought.....that Roger had faked his death..... had already occurred to me. I simply hired someone to check it out for me._

_Billy: And he, or she, was positive that it was Thorpe?_

_Alan: Beyond any doubt. I made sure of that._

_Billy: Well......I feel better knowing for certain..........but...Will you listen to us? We sound almost like....like friends...... well maybe, non-bitter acquaintances..... instead of enemies! _

_Alan: Now there's a truly terrifying thought._

_Billy: Is our common hatred of Roger that strong?_

_{Show flashbacks of Billy vs. Roger, and Alan vs. Roger.}_

_Alan: Don't worry, it'll never happen. But then, I was actually friends briefly, very briefly...with Mike Bauer for a short time period all those years ago....... so I better not say anymore. Why tempt fate?_

_{Next Scene}_

_Phillip: Alan-Michael.... I was surprised that you came for Roger's funeral. Especially when you didn't visit after....._

_Alan-Michael: After father's heart attack? Why do you think I'm really here, Phillip? Yes, I wanted to give my condolences to Blake, but I also wanted to try and work things out with father. While, I still don't want anything to with company.... Roger's death..... made me realize how short time really is. I don't want to leave our relationship the way it is._

_Phillip: You may not believe this, Alan-Michael, but I have never really cared much for the company either._

_Alan-Michael: You really could have fooled me. Especially, with recent events involving SanCorp._

_Phillip: I only took the position as CEO to make Dad happy. This retirement of his, won't last very long. I just want to ensure that it's still around when he decides to return. While, it doesn't mean much to us, it means the world to him._

_Alan-Michael: Funny isn't it? The way this family is. We fight, and lie, and cheat, and yell at each other, but when one of us is hurt or ill, we usually manage to band together._

_Phillip: Not always._

_Alan-Michael: Well, I did say usually...._

_Phillip: You're right though. I can't count how many times that I wished Alan was out of our lives for good. Funny how you say those things..... you think that, that's what you want, but it's not. That saying "careful of what you wish for, it may just come true" definitively applies to us. But, we were lucky.... this time._

_Alan-Michael: To true._

_Phillip: But I tell you, seeing him like that, in the hospital, knowing that I..... we could lose him. None of what he did in the past mattered anymore to me. None of it._

_Alan-Michael: At least you were on better terms with him. I barely said two words to him when I left Springfield. If he hadn't of made it..... Despite everything, I do love him, Phillip. The thought of him dying without knowing that, or thinking that I hated him, just makes me feel....._

_Phillip: Beating yourself up isn't going to help anything. Talk to Dad, let *him* know how you feel._


End file.
